Editor’s note: Throughout this election season, we will be regularly analyzing campaign claims via our political polygraph.

In the battle for the 6th Congressional District, Republican Congressman Mike Coffman recently unveiled a TV ad that charges Democratic challenger Joe Miklosi was soft on sexual predators as a state lawmaker and “decided to vote against them (children).”

The Polygraph finds the claims in this ad to be in the gray area overall.

Claim 1:

“258,000 children are abducted in America every year.”

The facts:

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children cites the most recent U.S. Department of Justice study that says each year more than 200,000 children were were abducted by family members and more than 58,000 children were abducted by nonfamily members. That’s likely where Coffman came up with the 258,000 figure.

But in these statistics, the justice department points out that only 115 children each year are the victims of “stereotypical” kidnapping. According to the study, these crimes involve someone the child does not know or a slight acquaintance who holds the child overnight, transports the child 50 miles or more, kills the child, demands ransom, or intends to keep the child permanently.

So the figure cited in the ad is rather inflated when it comes to actual stranger abductions.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.